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Socialist Alliance: In solidarity with the people of Iran

June 26, 2009 (amended June 30) -- Socialist Alliance stands in solidarity with the millions of
Iranians who are bravely demanding their rights in the streets despite
huge state-sanctioned repression. These are the biggest protests in
Iran since the 1979 protests in which the US-backed Shah was deposed.

Millions of people, old and young, ethnic and religious minorities,
have taken to the streets, day in and day out since the disputed
election on June 12. They have bravely defied the repressive regime of
Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to demand the most basic of rights: the right to
freely and transparently elect their representatives.

Some 27 people, including a young woman Neda Agha-Soltan whose death
was captured on video, have been killed in the crackdown on protests.
Several hundred have been injured, and a leading student activist is in
a coma. Government officials on June 24 announced that there had been a
total of 645 arrests in Tehran since June 13, 2009. Activists say that
several hundred more, including journalists, editors, students,
professors, party officials and unionists have also disappeared.

Iran’s unelected Guardian Council, while admitting electoral irregularities, has ruled out a recount or a fresh election.

The regime’s response is no surprise: it uses its repressive apparatus
– including the National Guard and the Basiji – to violently repress
trade unions, curb the rights of women, gays and lesbians, national
minorities and other oppressed sectors.

What started as a protest in support of opposition candidate and former
prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have been defrauded,
has become a rallying point for Iranians from many sectors fed up with
their lack of rights.

On June 20, the Autobus Workers Union of Iran (Sendikaye Sherkat Vahed) declared its support for the protests and protestors, and condemned the state-sponsored repression.

“Iranian society is facing a deep political and economic crisis”,
the union, many of whose leaders have been imprisoned and disappeared,
said. “Million-strong protests, which have manifested themselves with a
silence that is replete with meaning, have become a pattern that is
growing in area and dimension, a growth that demands a response from
any responsible person and organization.”

The union demanded that workers’ and democratic rights, in particular
the freedom to organise and the freedom to elect, to be respected, or
“any talk of social freedom and labor union rights will be a farce”.

The autoworkers union has also joined the protestors.

Socialist Alliance salutes those millions of Iranians who are
determined not to let this latest attack on democratic freedoms pass
by.

The Iranian people are reminding the world that their struggle
for democracy and rights, is not over. Since the nationalist uprisings
in the 19^th century against British and Russian imperialism, to the
British and US-backed coup against the democratically-elected
government of Mohammad Mossadeq in 1953, to the decades long US-imposed
sanctions, the people of Iran have battled imperialist meddling and
support for despotic rulers.

The apparent split in the Islamic ruling elite may assist the
Iranian people in this struggle – and our international solidarity will
also be a critical factor.

To that end, we commit our support the Iranian community in Australia in their efforts to organise international solidarity.

Socialist Alliance believes that resolving the crisis is the right
and responsibility of the Iranian people alone. External economic and
military interference can play no positive role, as has been clearly
shown throughout Iran’s history and the US-led interventions in Iraq
and Afghanistan, and its support for Israeli aggression against
Palestine and the region.

But the Australian government can and must take a stand in support of democracy in Iran by:

condemning the Iranian regime’s repression of the protests

demanding the release of all political prisoners, including union leaders and activists

demanding the regime sends the Iranian National Guard back to barracks and de-commissions the Basiji shock troops

opposing Western intervention, on any pretext, and to demand the US lifts the sanctions on Iran

demanding that the regime listens to the movement on the streets which, among other calls, is demanding fresh elections.